Wow - Federal Coinage Collection Of The Pogue Family...

Coming up for auction is the amazing Pogue Collection offered by Stack's/Bowers Auction firm.

Prolific numismatic author Q. David Bowers is researching and developing two books to be written chronicling the Pogue family collection of United States coins.

Most numismatists have never heard of the Pogue Family Collection, this may be one of the single greatest collections ever offered for sale. Assembled over several decades by the Pogue family of Dallas, Texas and built under the connoisseurship of D. Brent Pogue, the collection focuses on copper, silver, and gold coins from the early 1790s to the late 1830s. Many of these extraordinary examples are the finest known today. It is anticipated that the collection will be sold over a series of auctions in New York City over the next several years.

Following is a little copy from the latest E-Sylum newsletter, by contributor, Douglas Winter;

The last few years have been fertile, to say the least, for auction sales involving all-time great collections. We've seen the sales of the Newman collection, are seeing the current selling off of the Gene Gardner sets, and have also witnessed the not-as-splashy sales of a number of important general and specialized sets. But none of these sales affected me as much as the announcement of the upcoming sale(s) of the legendary Mac and Brent Pogue collection.

Around a week ago I read a press release stating that the Pogue collection would be sold by Stacks Bowers in a series of auctions "over the next several years." My reaction? Unprintable in this blog (hint, starts with: Holy) but understandable, given that it is well-known within the dealer community that this is quite probably the greatest collection of American coins ever formed, and that there were no rumors floating around that it might be sold.

After pondering the Pogue Situation for a few hours, I've reached a few initial reactions which I'd like to share with you.

1. This Collection is Even Greater than You've Heard

Other than a handful of people, there are not many numismatists that are aware of the complete inventory of this collection, and I am not one of the lucky few. Over the years, I've been shown little date runs from the collection (I can remember looking at a phenomenal group of early quarters at Dave Akers' table at an ANA convention 10-15 years ago that belonged to the Pogues and, at another ANA show maybe 15 years ago a group of Fat Head half eagles which were mind-blowing) and have received tidbits of information from Brent about what he has. But this is truly a once-in-a-generation collection and it is certainly the only collection that I would actually pay to see in person.

2. This Collection is More Valuable than You've Heard

It is nearly impossible to know the value of a collection which you haven't seen in person and don't even know for sure what it includes. If I had to give a good guesstimate, I'd say the collection is easily worth $150 million, and it could ultimately be worth $200 million or even more. (bold is my emphasis).

It contains a coin which is likely to set a record for most valuable United States issue ever sold at auction (the Childs/Pogue PCGS PR68 Original 1804 Dollar) and it contains at least two other coins (the 1822 half eagle and the 1854-S half eagle) that could break the $5 million dollar barrier. There are scads of mid to high six-figure coins in the Pogue collection, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of other coins which will break the $1 million dollar mark when they are sold at auction.

Additional announcements will be made as appropriate in coming months. Stay tuned at StacksBowers.com.


This is huge news, I probably can't afford any of the upcoming treasures in the sale, but will surely be ordering a set of hardbound auction catalogs as soon as they are released!

staff edit - title spelling corrected